October 7, 2009

GOP Implosion

Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

The conservative website RedState is reporting that the GOP Senators are about to cave to Democrats on health care. Damn if that don't make no sense! [Yes, sic me.] The GOP was slow off the mark in embracing the Tea Party movement and the summer time town hall antipathy towards health care reform. How do you miss an entire groundswell? Is it even possible? Sure, for the Democrats to view it through their own warped prism is one thing, but for the GOP to totally miss the mark on a conservative movement is beyond confounding. They are supposed to get this!

There's absolutely no reason for the GOP to cave on this. Why would they - simply for the sake of bi-partisanship? It's political suicide. They don't gain a single Democrat vote by joining the Obama chorus. They probably lose more independent voters than they gain and they would absolutely bleed conservative voters in a way that deserves a bleeding analogy too gore-filled to contemplate.

It makes ZERO sense. Unless...

1) the GOP are as clueless and Democrat-lite as they purport not to be. OR

The only likable option from the above choices is (3), although option (4) is conceivable and barely tolerable.

I've firmly held that the only way to defeat the march towards socialism is to support the GOP - for now at least. Yes, they aren't pure but the alternative is far worse. But if there are more than 2 GOP Senators who break ranks on a government option for health care, then I'm forced to concede that the party is in shambles. It would no longer be a force for conservative values. And if that's the case, why the hell do they even exist?

The GOP has to get it's head right and get in the game - there's only 13 months to the mid-term elections. By being slow off the mark - by trying to be too measured in their response to the 9/12 and earlier Tea Parties they squandered good will waiting to be showered upon them. That's inertia. Ironically, following the grassroots movement would have been a sign of leadership. Unlike the rhetoric of the Obama change manifesto (radical change but the same old Washington), this would have been change Americans could believe in. A truly responsive leadership team, willing to change things and react to the will of the people. Obama's change is top down, though it was promised as a bottom up change to believe in. The GOP has really not promised anything. Right now that's what they need to stick to - deliver nothing. It's perversely a model that will work right now because it's a model that's needed. That is, as opposed to 4 more Yea votes on a government option in health care.

I hope Red State has got this wrong. But just in case you really should light up those Senators' phone lines.